These Spooky Photos Of The Winchester Mystery House Are Giving Us Goosebumps
By Aimee LutkinUpdated Jan. 18 2019, 10:08 a.m. ET
The Winchester Mystery House was built in San Jose by Sarah Winchester, the widow of Will Winchester (who worked in her father-in-law Oliver Winchester's gun business). Sarah inherited a fortune from the gun manufacturing company run by the men in her family. She was convinced after her husband's death by an occultist that the spirits of people killed by her husband's guns were trying to get to her, and that the only way to keep them at bay was to continually have work done on her house. This sounds like a completely fictional story, we know, but it's not. It's truly one of the weird creepy stories of our time.
It is, however, being turned into a movie starring Helen Mirren, because it's just that good. Hollywood couldn't ask for a better plot:
Terror is building... watch the teaser trailer for '@Winchestermovie: The House That Ghosts Built' NOW. pic.twitter.com/lAjgYezvgj
— Winchester (@winchestermovie) October 24, 2017The Smithsonian reports that Sarah paid 16 carpenters to work on her house in shifts, and they were paid three times the going rate. The work went on 24 hours a day from 1886 until Sarah died in 1922.
Sarah Winchester: feared being haunted by ghosts of people killed by her husband's guns, so built her mystery house. pic.twitter.com/ZTQs0o4PWj
— Richard Shepherd 🕸 (@rshepherd1964) May 28, 2013Sarah Winchester inherited a fortune, used it to construct mysterious mansion in California. https://t.co/joN4fURDug pic.twitter.com/TzU3mgFVOm
— Smithsonian Magazine (@SmithsonianMag) July 8, 2016The Winchester house is open to public viewing via tours. Many stairs, doors and windows lead to nowhere. There is an estimated 200 rooms, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces, and 2,000 doors, plus trap doors and spy holes, if it weren't freaky enough. Lots of people who visit claim they feel a ghostly presence inside.
My bff & I went to the Winchester House, experienced several jarring things-one- in a photo I took of the empty windows. See her? 😳 #LCFZ pic.twitter.com/W3XnlOhjnk
— Ozma Bryant (@ozma_bryant) February 2, 2017Sarah Winchester, heiress to Winchester rifle 💰, built @WinchesterHouse in weirdest way possible so as to trick 👻. You do you girl! pic.twitter.com/VrPxk6AlSn
— Reggie Aqui (@reggieaqui) July 28, 2017Sarah Winchester built a house in maze form to confuse ghost. Doors that lead to now where an you have to have a guided tour
— Whiterabbit (@mcferrin000) October 21, 2017Staircase to nowhere at the @WinchesterHouse winchestermysteryhouse! #winchestermovie @winchestermovie pic.twitter.com/pODXhRCg6j
— Jenna Boooooooooosch (@JennaBusch) May 5, 2017Another stair to nowhere (so a door to nowhere, too). #winchestermysteryhouse pic.twitter.com/Gpje9Q9g5g
— The Halloween Haunt (@HalloweenHaunt) December 28, 2016A famous window in the floor. #winchestermysteryhouse pic.twitter.com/K6l9gnz5pG
— The Halloween Haunt (@HalloweenHaunt) December 28, 2016From today: Another door leading to nowhere--well, a straight drop downstairs. #winchestermysteryhouse pic.twitter.com/aWYOGldwg6
— The Halloween Haunt (@HalloweenHaunt) December 30, 2016A door to nowhere. #winchestermysteryhouse pic.twitter.com/gGxaxAqhy8
— The Halloween Haunt (@HalloweenHaunt) December 28, 2016I still think about Winchester Mystery House, and worry I'm still lost in it pic.twitter.com/vupJ17ceOT
— Scott Stein (@jetscott) June 9, 2017The scariest part of #WinchesterMysteryHouse is in the cellar. There be ghosts down here. #WinchesterMovie pic.twitter.com/17l84UCJO9
— Eric Walkuski (@ericwalkuski) October 25, 2017No one is entirely sure why Sarah believed so firmly that building was the only way to escape the vengeful spirits she thought were punishing her for making a fortune off guns. Maybe she was building them a place to live, maybe she was trying to elude them. One thing is known, however: she had a very cute dog.
Sarah Winchester's dog, Zip. pic.twitter.com/5sFnEBbn
— Colins Black Treacle (@colindickey) December 4, 2012ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXSramam6Ses7p6wqikaKyimrultc2gZmtoYWx8cnyOa21okoKar5CFjrCgp5uYmsC1sdFmnqino5qvtrnPrGSmsaOpsrPF